Data Enclave
Individuals working in a departmental computing environment typically have a substantial amount of computing power on their desks in the form of personal computers and workstations. A workstation has a computational subsystem, keyboard, and display for user interaction, and typically substantial amounts of local data storage in the form of fixed and removable media.
In order for the individual in the departmental computing environment to interact and share data, their workstations are typically attached to a local area network (LAN) which permits the transfer of data files and electronic mail between the workstations. In addition, "servers" may be attached to the LAN to provide specialized services, such as the management of centralized databases, which are not practical for individual workstations.
Departmental computing environments are typically members of a larger organization or have other reasons to communicate with computing facilities outside themselves. They therefore make use of a special kind of server, called a "gateway", to gain access to a wide area network (WAN). WANs are often interconnected (called "internetting") to provide world-wide data transmission paths.